Riyad Nadwi – 20. Imam Ghazali on Ikhlas The True Meaning of Ikhlas
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AI: Transcript ©
Say, oh, Muhammad,
shall we inform you of the greatest losers
as to their deeds? There are those whose
effort in this world is lost
in this worldly life while they think that
they are doing good work.
Brothers and sisters,
Welcome to our
20th
lecture, which is
our final lecture
in this term. And, as you know, we
missed
3 classes,
due to my illness.
And
we're now left with
one session in which to read from
the chapter
of proper, which is which is the main
aim of the book, which is the main
aim of this course is just to for
us to be able to configure
Ikhlas, to know what Ikhlas is.
This
these last 3 well, these last 4 lectures
were supposed to be focused on that. So,
I want to cover as much as I
can do,
and,
this week, then I I will not go
through a point by point summary
of what we did last week.
I will just,
to jog your memory in one sentence, last
week, what we learned was that motive near
intention
does not change the status of sinful deeds
as it does
with good deeds. Because if you if you're
if you're doing something good with a bad
with a bad intention, then that renders it
bad. That that that that undermines it. But
if you have bad deeds, then no amount
of good intention will,
can change it
except in some extremely
rare cases, which I've covered when we spoke
about
the calamities of the tongue, which inshallah will
go over next, well, next term.
Well well, next year, the next academic year
inshallah.
But good deeds, as we say, can become
can become bad through corruption.
And
and this is also related to
a common fitna nowadays,
scheme of corruption,
where it
we,
it's we want to do whatever we want.
We people choose allow their,
desires to fashion their Islam, and they say,
well, look. I don't have to do anything.
All I,
as long as I have my the love
for Islam in my heart. I have my
Islam is in my heart. I don't have
to,
wear hijab. I don't have to eat proper
Islamic food. I don't have to do anything
because I have good intentions. You know? It's
all in my heart.
And I usually give an example,
for this kind of person, it's
it
of a person who is,
at work. He goes to work every day,
but does nothing of his duties allocated to
him.
And then when he's questioned,
his defense, his explanation is that,
yes, I might not be doing all these
things, but I have a lot of love
for the company, for the for this company
in which I'm work. You you don't know
how much I love this company.
What do you expect the answer would be?
They they would say, well, look, you were
okay. You thank you very much for loving
the company, but you have to do. Islam
is both practice
and belief. It's mental and physical.
Now the other thing that is related to
this is that human beings
are
were hopeless. I mean, when it comes to
navigating their own moral issues,
without guidance for without divine guidance specifically,
you
we we we
assume always the,
that that we are able
to find,
a compass to create our own compass, but
we end up in trouble. And this is
throughout history, you can find this. I,
if I remember correctly, I think it was
Herodotus who
wrote about a conversation to show how far
human beings drift. And you only have to
look at
the the the modern world today and how
many things we were
confused about. You know? The
so, yeah, this story about Herodotus,
he
mentioned
a conversation that happened. I think it was
in the court of
Darius. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. The the the court
of Darius. But, anyway,
a a a a tribe of people had
been brought to from the Far East, and
they were in the court.
And
they were told that
it was the
practice
of the people who they were visiting to
cremate their dead ancestors.
And when they said that, this group of
people became completely horrified at such a prospect
that the that is what you do to
your people,
to to your dead.
It was
clearly
something that was way beyond their moral compass
something to do. And then
the people asked them so what do you
do with your dead?
They said that we eat them instead.
And then so the other side said we
were equally horrified. So the,
our Heratas was,
quoted this conversation to show how
the the extent to which human beings can
drift.
And this is true. I mean, we we
we if you a a few weeks ago,
I saw a news item of a man
who paid 12,000
dollars to be to become his dog, to
to to look like his dog. So he
wore the whole thing. Another woman just married
herself and all sorts of things. I mean,
I don't have to go through the list.
The our moral compass,
can easily get
knocked off track when we are disconnected
from guidance. We need guidance from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala or sense of value or knowing
of what is good and what is bad,
what is right, what is wrong,
must be derived from guidance sent by our
creator, the one who knows us more than
we know ourselves.
So,
that was another reason
why
we need to recognize
that if that saying that all my Islam
is in my heart is not sufficient. Practice
is important.
Practice is necessary.
Also, I,
I want to leave some time at the
end to, talk about this, the extraordinary
power of retention of the Arabs in which
I've been promising for the past 2 weeks.
Now the
the topics we discussed in the previous 19
sessions
were all.
They're all laying the groundwork, the preparation for
this topic. The topic is.
Because last week we did,
intention, what is intention? And before that we
did and
riya and.
All of these are
laying the the preparation, the preparatory
steps of for the mind for Ikhlas.
So and now in the second part of
the book,
and this this book has this this second
part has 5 chapters actually. It's,
for for the
virtue of sincerity.
The tree the true reality of Ikhlas.
The sayings of the scholars in regard to
Ikhlas.
The degrees of contaminants and then
that that
ruling on tainted actions,
and what
reward are they do they deserve? So, obviously,
we wouldn't be able to cover all 5
of these chapters in one sitting, but,
what I intend to do is to
summarize much as possible.
And then next term, inshallah,
if Allah keeps us alive, we will go
over them in greater detail if need be.
Now for the first chapter, which is,
the virtue of sincerity,
which is
the the virtue of. Well, why do we
need this? I'd said this in the beginning.
If you remember,
I talked about the need for urgency in
this. We need to have a sense of
urgency when it comes to because
it is the most it the it's the
most pressing issue for our deen, for if
Rasool Allah Salam saw the Sahaba speaking about
the jal and he said that I'm more
worried.
I will should I tell you what I'm
more worried for you than the gel? And
he said it's the that
the the loss of Ikhlas, not having Ikhlas.
And on the on the opening scene on
the day of judgment will also be
about Ikhlas where the
the the scholar, the martyr, and the philanthropist,
the
the philanthropist will,
be told that, look, you,
all you did, everything you did was to
show was for people. You didn't do it
for me. You lied.
Now
and so
it is
the the virtue of this cannot meet the
the need and the necessity for
studying and wanting to implement in your life
cannot be overemphasized.
Now in this chapter,
starts by mentioning,
let let me
show up. Yep.
By mentioning 4 verses
of the Quran,
from the Quran.
Yeah. We'll take 1. This this is the
one from Surat,
Surat Kahf.
That whoever intends, whoever whoever is looking forward
to meeting Allah, who is hopeful in meeting
Allah, then
so he he should do good deeds.
And do not
include anyone else in it. He should not
include anyone else in it. He
should not include anyone.
What and this is,
one. Imam Zali is commenting on this.
That is this was revealed as a person
who was
who was doing things of of,
doing things for Allah, but at the same
time, he loved to have
people praise him for it. And hadith he
says,
and he said there are 3 things
that you you will not that a person
will not have anchor for in the Muslim's
heart and one of them of course is
Ikhlas. The other 2 was,
Mulla Sahat al, Alil Obara, Mulla Sahat al,
Mulla Sahat al, be giving good advice
to the leaders of Muslims, the rulers and
also,
keeping to the jama'ah, keeping to to to
the group of Muslim
This is this is Abi saying that my
father felt that he had some,
higher status than the peep than others who
were around the prophet
So Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
to him in nama that the lowly people,
you know, be poor people, people who are
often looked down on in society,
and he had some
class
complex
that look I'm from a higher class you
know it's like today where you know I'm
an oxford person and I look down on
people who are from hall or some other
place you know so that class thing so
he's saying here
that, Allah
help for this
He mentions 4 things that
is the reason for Allah's help of this
Ummah which is
from which comes
4 things that just did that makes Allah
helps this Ummah from the du'afa, from the
weak, from the low people, the people who
you think are low, the people who you
look down upon is the the first is
that they're weak because of that Allah helps
the Ummah. The second is because of their
act of their dua, their supplication
And the third is their
and the 4th is their salah their salah
because of them. So,
and this hadith this, it comes in in
in in another in other,
reports in in Bukhari. It's
that
are you do you give are you given
help? And are you given risk except through
the poor among you? A du'afa, the weak
among you, the weak and the poor among
you. Because of them you are being fed.
So the rich person did not think that
look somehow I'm disconnected. It's because of them
you're being helped.
Is
a mystery of among this among my mysteries.
That I placed this is a mystery that
I that I, that I place in the
hearts of those of my servants that I
love.
Okay. So
that's.
Okay. One more.
He says,
let
them He said, don't worry too much of
it. You're not doing that you're not doing
large amounts of, of good deeds of, of,
of, of righteous deeds. But
be very concerned about this acceptance. Whether Allah
when you do something, think about whether it's
being accepted. Abundance of charity
without acceptance is of no use, and in
fact can turn around and become can
become calamity.
So do do your
do your do whatever you're doing
with Ikhlas.
For Allah alone, then a little action may
suffice you. Okay.
So that was well, what should we want
to read from
from?
Then let's see. Okay. There's one here. Yeah.
This is, in summary,
So knowledge
is the seed,
and action is the planting of it. Knowledge
is the seed and planting and the planting
is your actions, your good deeds that you
do. But there is a third thing that
you need for your
actions to sprout, to bear fruit. What is
that? Water. And he says,
So if you remember the simple formula that
everything you do, it has to have that
water of.
Okay.
Well, we'll
the the exposition
of the true meaning of
everything that is
that is
capable of accepting contamination or adulteration.
And and if it is if all its
contaminants are removed, then it is known as
it is known as pure.
And and so it is the actions that
is clear that is pure is known as
Ikhlas. That's in that Allah
says in Quran that between
between excretion and blood, Allah brings pure milk
that is palatable.
That is favorable
for for people to drink. So that is
that that's the kind of purity.
Milk is a good example.
So the purity of milk is that it
should not have anything of anything of blood
or excretion in
it.
And any anything else that can also be,
contaminated.
That
is
the opposite to partnership.
That whoever is not
a a person who is not completely sincere,
then he is
He
is
mushlik.
Except that there are different types of shirk,
different degrees of shirk. They can of polytheism.
Which is polytheism.
If if you have,
a contaminated
understanding or view or belief
in in in the oneness of Allah, then
that is polytheism.
So he said
and
has
the hidden hidden aspects of a hidden and
apparent
Just just as shirk has
hidden aspects
and and the parent and and open appear,
apparent aspects, so it is with
So
is and and its opposite which is shirk,
they flow on the heart.
This
is the place. This is the place, you
know,
fighting to pointing to the chest, to the
to the breast.
And it is it's related to the motives
and the intentions.
And we have studied the
true meaning of niya. And you will understand
now why we went through all those degrees
of it and what what we spoke about.
And it says that it all returns to
having
1, the motive.
And whenever the motive is,
it becomes unified becomes 1 whenever the motive
is 1 becomes unified from all others and
it's purified from all other motives
then the action that emanates from that is
called ikhlas. Whatever it in relation to whatever
it is
it is aimed at completion or completing.
And this is an interesting sentence
he says
that whoever gives charity
and
his motive
is to show and to show alone nothing
else so he is a mokhlis. He this
person is sincere but what he's he has
mokhlis
and who also has a pure and a
single, a unified intention
for gaining closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that person is also a Muqlist they're both
Muqlist
right because it's it's purity it's just one
intention
but
in
it has become
it has become
the
ad, the the custom, the the way of
use, the
the the language, has
specified the the language, the use of the
language has become it's the ad, it's it's
it's now the convention that we use
only for
only for getting close to Allah from all
contaminants,
all other types of
corrupting
influences.
And he gives another example. He says that
just as atheism,
the real meaning of atheism is,
inclination this the
the the inclined towards something else, a diversion.
But then it its usage has become dominant
in in in the use of diversion from
the truth.
And whoever's
motive is only in riyah, then that person
is,
exposed to destruction.
And this is not what we are we
were speaking about.
We've spoken about this
in
verse.
And
if if there's one thing you will remember,
the least you will remember about this, then
think about this that on the day of
judgment, you will be called by 4 names.
A person who is a show off, who
whose actions are just to show then you
will be called by 4 names.
Oh Shoaf
you ostentatious person.
Oh deceiver.
Oh policies the one who is ascribing who's
including others with Allah
and
this
believer. This is about getting this is about
having the intention
in your heart to get close to Allah
alone.
What I can
if you have this intention, but then there
are other
impulses that have come upon it.
And other worldly fortunes.
And an example of that he's saying that
look,
and it is was this this was the
reason why we went through all those details
about
the degrees,
and and the various configurations
of
intention when we're studying Nia.
So you to understand this. He says,
he said, a person may do it because
of some protect some building the immune system
or build our
fast,
because he wants to,
gain increase his health. And he also has
intention to get close to Allah.
Oh, yeah.
He,
frees the slave because the the slave is
bothering him, and there's lots of he he's
he has bad conduct.
Oh, he he goes to Hajj because he
wants to,
improve
his,
his psychology, his empowerment.
He he wants to he wants a change
of the atmosphere. He wants
to,
go go on a holiday.
Oh,
he wants to run away from some harm
that is in his city or
or he wants to get away from a
the,
an enemy in he where he lives or
or his his family has given him too
much trouble, so he just wants to run
away. Why
yesterday? He wants to rest, you know, get
get get
some, rest, at Yemen for some time.
Okay. So
and then he goes on. Now he's talking
about Darcel Waz, and he gives many examples.
And he's saying here
Now
as long as his intention
is
to please Allah, to get close to Allah,
what I can involve
that
there are other thoughts have entered upon it.
And because these things, these contaminants have come
into it, it's make it makes it easier
for him because he has more motives and
more motives, more motivation,
and then it becomes easier.
Then in that case,
then he would have
removed himself
from the circle of Ikhlas. He cannot be
called It
is no longer for for the pleasure purely
for the pleasure of Allah.
And then shirk has entered upon what he
has done.
And Allah
says,
I am most independent
from all partnership. Allah does not need partnership.
So in
in some way in some summary,
all
the worldly fortunes through which
the the
the desires are pleased,
which the heart inclines to whether it
is tiny, whether whether it's a small amount
or a large amount,
if it enters upon your deeds,
then
then it has
tainted the purity
of your action. It has tainted
it. Has been removed.
But people are generally
involved in their fortunes.
And they are engrossed in
their in their desires.
And it is seldom that a person is
completely,
removed, from completely disconnected from these sorts of
fortunes, even in their in their actions, in
their
in their in
their goals and aims and
aspirations in life.
For the person
that if you have one
one step if if the person whose one
step
is
is completely pure
that you will be successful just with 1.
1.
It one one
step you make. If you manage to get
that purified
from all these things that are constantly
flowing in the mind and for the the
fortunes of the world and the, the engrossed
in the in the desires and the hearts
seeking
seeking benefit from it in this world.
If so, if you manage to get one
thing done, then that could become
your saving grace. That will become the thing
that will save you on the day of
judgment.
So Ikhlas, it it is difficult to to
cleanse, to pull it all out and just
keep it only for 1 because things come
onto it. They naturally come,
and Ikhlas is the one that has the
only Allah.
And if
these
these fortunes
if these fortunes is the is the motive,
so the the severity on on such a
person is is is not
hidden. So our purpose here is to look
that is to look is to look into
the situation where
if the original if the original
motive
was to seek Allah's pleasure, that is what
we have to look at. If the original
one is and then
so but then these things
then were added to it later on. There
were there are additional that came on.
And these contaminants,
sometimes they may be at the level of,
core of
which which is to in,
confirming what is there. It it's agreeable.
At the stage of partnership
or
at the stage
in a level
of assistance.
Do you remember when we spoke about those
4 configurations
of of how it works? So this is
what happens with your
So
it might be. He said that in summary,
this is how it will be. It will
be that your
nafs, the nafs, the motive of the nafs
will be similar to the motive of your
deed.
Or stronger than it or weaker or weaker
And for each it's a. And for each
of these
are specific rulings. In in other words, the
ruling on what
is the
consequence of this in the are different for
depending on
when they are strong, when they are weak,
when they are equal.
Is the aim of is to purify them
from all of these contaminants, all of these
interfering
other motives.
But he says
that the small of it and the large
of it.
And and the until it becomes completely clear,
it's only for Allah.
That there's there shouldn't be any other motive
in his heart.
And but this is not possible. This is
not imaginable that this can happen except for
what?
Doesn't it where? Except for what?
Except
except for the one who loves Allah.
Now you understand why we did
several sessions on loving Allah. That in order
to have Ikhlas, you have to have love
for Allah. That love has to take the
love for Allah has to take the place
of love for the dunya and for everything
in it that Allah is that everything you
have is from Allah Allah gave you this
so if you love this then love the
one who has given you it Love the
one who has created you. Love the one
who has placed it, made it possible for
you to attain it. So he's saying
that that you will not be able to
find it except for a person. You'll it
is unimaginable for this to happen except from
one who loves Allah.
And the one who is wholeheartedly
engrossed in in the love of Allah.
And also the one who is engrossed
in concern for the
akhirah. That he has his concern of the
akhirah is above his concern for the for
the dunya. If he doesn't get if he
doesn't get what's in the dunya then
it's he
he he doesn't
blame Allah. He accepts the Qadr. He says
that this
is I
I accept that this is
We try. We try to get sort of
things in this world.
So that there's no there there's no,
space in his
heart for for the love of the dunya.
Okay. So we're going to
go from there.
That's not too
sure.
He's saying like a person who eats, and
then he has
a person may eat, and he has an
intention
to
get the strength that he will get from
it. He will use it in in a
if to please Allah.
So that is the but then you have
other reasons for it. The the good taste,
all the other stuff that comes in.
The
correction
and the purification,
the curing for is
It's it's to it's to break that connection
with the self fortunes, the seeking of self
fortunes.
And to and to
eradicate,
to cut it completely.
Cut what?
Covetousness.
Because today, our problem is covetousness and the
the shaitan has made it possible for he
he he fuss he fosters covetousness, like, make
you see things that other people have and
want to commit what other people have. He
he says, you know, well, you deserve it.
You look at what they have and look
at what they have and look at what
they have. You know, in the olden days,
shops used to have a little door and
you went there and said you want x,
y, and zed. Now it's you have to
go and see everything.
You go buy a,
you know,
50 pence bread and you come out with
£50 of stuff.
Because
you want everything.
When the eye sees it, it takes it.
So
and thinking about the akhara and purifying it,
cleansing it
for
And this is the thing. It's it's about
the measurement is that
so that the dominance
of concern for the. The what have I
done for today? That the things that I've
gathered for my dunya will all be left
here. And my my product, my cut, my
my collection for today. What did I prepare
for my for my Akhirah today? At the
end of the day, what did I do?
Did I okay. Yes. I went. I earned
x number of pounds and I did x
y and then zed. But what did I
earn for my today? That concern has to
be such that you that that
the concern for is dominant in the mind.
The
this this is
this comes
through He said how many a deeds that
a person does
and he thinks that he's doing it for
Allah and this is the trick is that
we all if you ask anybody if you
have Ikhlas they're doing it oh yeah yeah
I'm doing it for Allah you know I'm
I have Ikhlas yeah I have some problems
but yeah I know I'm I'm I'm a
sincere person of what we do but we
don't realize. We we we have we we
have a lot of, hustle done about ourselves.
We switched and and
and, sues on for we have good opinion
about ourselves and bad opinion about everyone else
when it should be the other way around.
We should have we should be suspicious of
our and ups. And here it tells you,
it's it's a beautiful,
explanation of how this how this happens. He
says and this is in the verse in
the verse we read, you know, the I've
read in the beginning that you you do
good deeds and think you're doing good, but
it's it's all wasted.
And this story is very important. Remember the
story. He said that they said
said,
He said I spent
30 years praying in the Masjid
in the first row in the first row.
Now when you see someone praying in the
first row
and he's for for for 30 years he's
praying in the first row then
that is a pious person. Yeah. So he
said,
and but then
he
said,
but then one day I got delayed for
some reason
for the light of his
and then I had I was forced to
pray in the 2nd row in in the
prayer.
He said that then I was gripped
with
a shame, a an embarrassment that people will
see me now today in the 2nd row.
That
I've been praying in the 1st row for
30 years and now suddenly today I'm in
the 2nd row. I'm praying. And
he and then he
pondered, contemplated
what that meant.
What that what what did that mean? That
feeling, the the the sense of shame. Why
did shame come? Why did he why did
he feel embarrassed? He says
and then I realized
He said, and then I realized that
my this
that
praying in the first row
was actually a reason through which I derived
joy.
I I was I derived happiness,
and it was the reason through which I
felt good
in my heart for being in that place.
And I did not even realize it. For
30 years, I've been praying and I've been
my salah has been tainted have been tainted
terribly with this because I'm in the first
row and I think that I'm doing good.
So he said
and said that this is excuse, you know,
it's
And it's seldom are actions
pure or purified from such problems.
And seldom do people realize that seldom do
people
pay people able to pay attention to this
problem.
And they the the the people, they will
see. They will see on the day of
judgment all their good deeds. The people who
are,
the people who are negligent, who do not
pay attention to these things
will end up on the day of judgement.
They will see they will see it all
as
say yet. Their good deeds will be will
be will will be recorded as sins.
And they are the people who are mentioned
in the in in the Quran.
That
that look it did something from Allah
will
come will confront them.
And something from them will
which they did not expect.
And then they're they they will be confronted
with the with the bad deeds that they
did.
And then
did I not tell you of the people,
the worst, the biggest losers? There are the
people who do good, who think who do,
that their
work in this world is wasted, and they
they continue to think that they're doing good.
Move
on.
So knowing this is a vast ocean.
We are we are all drowned in this
except exceptional the exceptional
ones. This is the these are this is
the accepted one. The the exempt the the
the ones who who goes against the rule
here. He says,
except Allah's
servants who are who are truly,
who are truly sincere.
So let everyone be
extremely vigilant
extremely vigilant.
That let
him insert extreme
extreme
caution and monitoring
and and vigilance
about these details.
And and if he doesn't do this if
you don't do this,
that he will he will then join the
followers of shaitan without realizing it without real
remember what we said? What was the worst
thing than jahal? Jahal is this is jahal
this is and the worst jahal is
That the ignorance of ignorance. The worst type
is the one.
The the ones who are complete, who who
do not know and do not realize, and
they end up they think that they know.
Okay. Oh, there. We've, okay.
Let me see.
We'll
skip that, and I'll go straight to
Darajat. We can't do Darajat as well, but
I need to do
the ruling because I don't want you to
leave where you you'll becoming,
Parishad. You know? You'll get too
depressed,
if we don't
tell you that
there is there are different rulings
on this.
Yeah.
So
here,
he said he's saying
that if an if an action,
has
is mixed, it's not clearly for Allah, but
it has tainted, it's tainted by contaminants.
So in such an action, you have an
intention to please Allah but the other things
come into it, but they are not as
strong.
The the scholars are divided on whether you
get reward or not.
And whether you'll be punished according to them
on the basis of the
As for the one who did not intend
anything but,
then
the one that person is definitely
in in in wrong, he's he will be
in sin. And
it is
the reason
for punishment
and for
Allah's dislike
and the one that who that is pure
for the sake of Allah
for another field. Now we are looking for
the one that is tainted.
And the,
it it appears from
the reports, the hadith
the that there's no that there's no reward
that the person will not get if it's
tainted.
And there is some
conflicting,
reports about it.
He said the thing that that is that
that we have gathered from this well, what
we have
extracted from it.
Is that you look
at the
intensity
of the motive.
That if it is the if the motive
of the dean, if motive for something that
is for dean is same as the one
for your nafs,
If if it's if it's equal,
then that destroys, then that is
as if it is the
it's it's it's it's it's a it it's
sufficient for punishment.
And if if
the motive for showing is stronger and more
powerful, it
is for punishment. If it's only if it's
stronger.
So but the punishment in that is less
for the for than the than the action
that is done purely for riya because there
is some degree of
intention for doing good in it but it's
tainted with riya.
But if the
motive is
stronger for the motive for gaining closeness to
Allah is stronger here then in that case
for the
then he will get reward
at according to the level.
That he will get reward according to the
level
of the intensity, the the level, the strength
of that
intention.
How do you what and what is he
basing this on?
He's saying that you have a good intention,
but then some other things come along, and
it's but you can have 22
motives
22 motive running in the mind together or
3.
So he's saying that for the good one,
you can get reward for it if it
is dominant. But if it is the weakest,
then no. So he's saying that look up
and his,
what will this say? The play where he's
deriving this from is from the Quran. He's
saying
that whoever does an atom's weight of good,
he will see it.
Whoever does an atom's weight of evil, he
will see it.
And also for the verse where Allah says
that Allah does not
oppress. He does not commit injustice in the
slightest, not even an atom's weight.
So it we should not waste our opportunities
for
If if the but if it if it
becomes if the ria is dominant in it,
that the entire thing the entire action
collapses.
And if and according to the level of
the ria in it, that will that will
also dictate the level of the punishment in
it.
Okay. I want to leave a few minutes
to yeah. I think I'll
stop here. Inshallah,
we can come back to this
next term. But,
Yeah.
But, Yeah. That much should be sufficient. So,
in summary, it is that
is to aim for, to get close to
Allah, to make sure that you are that
whatever you do,
the number 1, the highest motive in your
mind should be that of for Allah
Okay. So now
the
other thing that I wanna talk to you
about, which I promised,
and it it it has a serious aspect
to it, which is that,
the power and the power of attention of
the Arabs and that,
in fact, I promise promised you to speak
about a funny story about memory.
But in the broader context, this is the
there's there's a serious need to familiarize
ourselves,
of this aspect of the history as well,
like I've been doing for the last 2
weeks.
And why do we need to do this?
To protect ourselves
from another,
fitna, another scheme for instilling doubt in the
minds of believers.
And what is the scheme? The scheme is
to
draw
a parallel in your mind
between the Arab oral tradition
and
the concept of Chinese whispers, which you all
know what Chinese whispers is. In fact, the
some postmodernists
have even gone as far as labeling it
as Arab whispers whispers
in their writings. They call it Arab whispers
because they they want to draw they want
to draw a strong
parallel between the oral tradition and, and Chinese
whispers. And the aim, of course, is to
dismiss everything in the oral tradition
as unreliable
as as that as Chinese whispers where
the first utterance is usually completely different from
the final utterance, the final the last utterance.
But, of course, there's a big distinction
that is completely lost in this comparison between
Chinese whispers and the Arab oral tradition.
In the first one in in in the
Chinese whispers,
you're required those the secrecy is required in
speaking silently,
while the other, the the Arab oral tradition
can only flourish
with loud and public recitals.
For example, you know, we we read the
whole Quran loudly in public during the month
of Ramadan.
And if a mistake is made, then the
biggest imam is corrected by a young child.
He can be corrected by a from a
child.
The correction can come from a child.
And the same for hadith, you know, reading
hadith publicly,
well, was a big tradition. When Imam Bukhari,
arrived in Baghdad, they tested him. They took
a 100 hadith, mixed up the chain and
the text,
and give it to,
to 10 people. And it sat in a
big gathering, and they asked these people to
read the hadith to test him. And they
all read their hadith, and in each one,
he said,
I do not know it. I do not
know it. And when they're finished, he said
that the first hadith you read,
the chain of it was read by the
3rd hadith you read, and the 3rd hadith
you read was connected to the 4th 4th
chain that you read. And like this, he
went through the whole hundred. So he didn't
only he's not he was not he demonstrated
his power to memorize their mistakes and who
had said it and when and in what
order.
So this that's the kind of memory where
that was Imam Bukhari. But,
the point here is that in
the nature of recital is public. It's it's
open to public scrutiny. So you you can't.
There's no secrecy, no silence, no whispering.
So to draw a parallel with Chinese whispers
is completely disingenuous
and devious.
They want they have another
aim. The the purpose is to, as I
said before, you go back to lesson number
13 and 12.
Now to come back to the power of
memory of the Arabs,
and as a memory scientist,
we know that things in the memory are
connected
through the the connections. If you have clutter
then that affects
it. Now for the
plain desert life people,
the the the people who are living in
in a desert and the
hardly any clutter, it was a perfect place
for good memory to be fostered. And as
I said last week, they memorized their lineages,
their, the lineages of their animals, and the
poetry
was their main source of entertainment.
Now let me give you a few examples
of how powerful their memories were. Take the
great Sahabi, Abdullah ibn Abbas.
A person that was sitting in a gathering
and a man came and he read a
poem of 80 couplets.
And someone objected to the couplet to to
the
to one of the couplets,
and
Abdullah ibn Abbas
said no. No. He didn't say that. He
said this. So this man pounced on,
Abdullah
and Abdullah ibn Abbas and said, what? Do
you know this and this? And the man
said, no. I wrote it last night that,
you know, this is a new thing. And
Abdul Ahmed said, but I know it.
And he read read the whole thing 80
just by hearing it once. Eighty poems,
80 couplets.
Another person is Abdul Malik Al Marouf.
He he
went to, there were he was sitting with
the Khalifa with the Khalifa who was giving,
responding to requests on cards. You know, people
come and make requests to to the ruler,
and these cards are read out and and
then they sign. And about
after finished about the about 50 cards were
read, and then he issued the rulings,
give them,
what he what they should the responses to
it. There
are the
money that he would give or help, what
sort of help they would get. And then
in that gathering,
a man said to to
the,
the ruler, he said,
What do you think about a
person
who
says?
He said, what do you think about a
person who says that I read a book,
every book I read, I do not need
to return to it, and anything that enters
into my heart cannot leave.
So he's asking this
and sitting there in the gathering. So
he's he he answers straight away. He said
he he's actually talking about me.
He said he's talking about me. Then he
said
that he,
and he said, yes. He's saying
And then he said, look. I'll I'll show
you. I'll show you. Just now, we just
had 50 of these cards. You just read
them out. I saw them while while they
were being read out. And I can tell
you,
the names, and I can tell you the
name of the people who and what what
was requested
and what you ordered for them.
And he said, really? You can? Okay. Start.
Do it. And he did for for for
he said and then he said,
well, but he his name is this person
and and and you offered him this and
you gave him this and he give and
he went through. And when he reached 47,
I know that, person sitting in the gathering.
He said, look. Look. Save yourself from evil
eye. That this so this story is recorded.
Another one
is a story of a great imam, imam
Abu Bakr al al Jiaabi. And this is
an important story linked to our our the
bite size I gave you last week. Because
we think
the scholars of when they were
collecting hadith, they only relied on either their
memory or the books that these 2 weren't
weren't combined.
But it is that in this case, you
see that they were doing both
because he said
and this this story is recorded
in in
by Imam Dahabi. He he says that,
and it's self reporting. This is Imam Al
Jahabi is self reporting it. He's saying, the.
Raqqa. You know, Raqqa in Syria where ISIS
has made their made their headquarters. That same
place. That same city.
Said he had 2 large cases of books,
and his servant was carrying it, his slave
who was
walking who who were traveling with him. And
he left it somewhere outside when they went
in. And when it came out,
he'll put up to the the servant comes
and he's crying. He's really, really sad now.
He doesn't know what he's going to say
That that and he said
that, oh, the the the bags have been
stolen. And these were all the books in
there.
And Imam said to him,
oh, my son, don't worry. Don't don't don't
don't be distressed. It's fine. It says there's
200,000 hadith in it.
That none of it is difficult for me
to rewrite.
Not even its chain nor its text. I
can rewrite rewrite them all because I have
them all here. He lost books a book
he lost 2 cases of books with
200,000
hadith, and he said, no. Don't worry. I
I can write it back.
Okay. Now come come to this, what's the
time? You're gonna have to bear with me
a little more. I'm gonna go over time
now.
If you want to listen to the funny
story or if not, we can finish.
Okay. So now come to the story. This
is that,
it's about
as writing became
prominent,
people's memories began to fade obviously. And so
these kind of people with marvelous memory were
not as,
popular. They they were not as frequent as
as, as they were in the early days.
Just like we see now, you know, with
the arrival of full of the mobile phone,
we've lost our ability to memorize phone numbers.
You know, you tell people to memorize the
phone number and they say, no. I can't.
You know, it's all, this is, the the
yeah. This is a skill that we used
to have 15 years, 20 years ago. Now
in the same case, as as writing became
popular, people depending on that and depended on
everything is right. So the but there were
still a few people
who had this skill.
And obviously, it's from Allah, but there was
a ruler. His name was Abu Jafar al
Mansur,
and he's the man who built the, the
round city, the Madinah to Salam that that
then became Baghdad.
So anyway, he came up with this scheme.
He issued a challenge because he was one
of those people
who if he hears a poem, no matter
how long it is, if he hears it
once, he will memorize it immediately just by
hearing it once.
And he had a a slave,
boy, a servant who
if he hears something twice,
he would memorize it as well. And the
girl, a a servant girl who would if
she hear if she hears it three times,
she would memorize it as well.
So the poems, it was big big culture
then the the the the source of entertainment
was poetry, and they would come and repeat
the the poets would come and read their
lengthy poems in in the court,
of the Khalifa, and he would have he
would give them gold,
on the basis of their poem. And but
then
he came up with this scheme,
this challenge. He issued a challenge. He's a
funny man. I mean, he he decided to,
say that if someone could come with a
poem that I did not hear before,
then
I will give him
the weight of what he has written his
poem on in gold. I will whatever he's
written he's he's paid when he and we'll
take that paper, put it on the on
the scale, and give you that amount in
gold. So if you write a long poem
you'll get the the scroll whatever you you
write it
on. So
he said,
but he didn't specify what
what you can write it on but he
just says, what what you wrote it on.
And what he would do is this poem,
these
poets would spend their nights writing amazing poems,
you know, all night writing a poem and
they would come and read it to the
the Khalifa and the Khalifa will listen
and then say, yeah, but,
are you sure you wrote that poem? And
he says, yes. Yes. I did. I wrote
it all night. Yeah.
This this is I I struggled hard on
it. I was working all all night on
it. He said, no. No. I think I
I think you you forgot that you have,
probably copied it from somewhere else. I know
that poem. He said, no. You cannot. And
then he read he reads the whole poem
back to him. And while he's doing that,
the slave boy the boy is behind the
curtain and so is the girl. So now
the boy hears it twice.
And he says and the and the hadith
says to him, not only me. Yeah. Yeah.
And he and the man is, you know,
dumbfounded and thinking the poet is saying, no.
No. I don't know. Maybe you memorized it.
No. No. Even my, my servant knows this.
He called the boy. The boy's read boy
reads the poem and then the calls he
said even even my my,
slave girl knows it.
So he comes out and reads the poem
as well. Anyway,
this
the
the poem the the
poets
of Baghdad
became
ill depressed.
Nobody could find a poem now that will
that that that they can earn their living.
It's like a real problem.
Anyway, eventually, one poet who was the master
poet, Asmarie,
he he realized that what was going on.
So he
decided to,
take up the challenge. He took the challenge
and he said and he wrote a poem
and and for things to be connected in
memory, for you to memorize stuff, it has
to it has to have a relationship
and relationship of languages that language that that
you know that you're familiar with. So you
would you make that's how memory works. You
did you connect from one to the other.
So every,
sentence has to be connected to a sentence
that is that you have some a similar
sentence so you you you make a link
that that's how pinning,
works in the memory so that's how you
link stuff.
And he is a master poet and also
a great person of great memory. So what
he did he wrote this poem and instead
of using
the normal
language that people use,
he
used completely unfamiliar language. It's Arabic. It's it's
it's perfectly good, language, but a completely different
register.
And, you you know, in Arabic in English,
we have this word, the
the
what's it? Oh, ono. Onomatopoeia
or onomatopoeia,
where you the sound of things. So in
Arabic, do you have these sounds that you
can do? And he added extra,
pronouns. Oh, yes. Pronouns in today's world. You're
talking about pronouns. So he added, like, for
the word,
you would if you are addressing someone, you
will say, my master. But he added an
extra,
pronoun. He didn't say he said, say,
yeah.
Yeah.
Instead of say
And
so he he added lots of things like
that in the poem. And he wrote the
poem the the title of the poem was
that the,
the the voice
of
the wobbling, the warbling or the singing of
the nightingale.
And he and and and he came in
and he said, yes. I, I heard I
I need to take the challenge. I'm I
want to take the challenge that I heard
that you were going to give
the gold of what is written on, if
if it's a new poem. So he reads
this poem,
a
family,
and
and, I'm gonna read the the difficult bits.
He said,
I mean, I mean, last minute, what what
mean last minute, what
So things like that with you it's
impossible to memorize.
So and and then he also,
so he so he talked about the singing
of the bird and the bird made him
remember his lover and then and and how
beautiful the Khalifa and then praise the Khalifa
and then talk about people's
girls singing in a in a garden and
they and the drum and he also uses
the sound of the drum. He said
and
he
and so so things like that he he
he kept adding in in the poem and
when that happens then you lose the connections
at the end of the poem.
So he when he completed, he said he
said to the Khalifa,
and,
did you ever did you hear this poem
before?
So the Khalifa realized now that he's trapped
now that this one,
so he didn't even try. He didn't even
try to put it. He said, no. No.
I didn't. So that that's what I couldn't
because he didn't want to. He said, no.
I didn't. But I think my servant might
have so he he he had a go
and he called the boy. So the boy
started off by saying, and
on the third one, he he fell off.
And then I called the girl. The girl
also didn't know it.
So
at the end,
he said, well, you've, yeah. I I think
you have earned the prize.
So bring give me what you have written
it, on so that we can wait. So
the I will will will give you the,
the gold. He said, yeah. Mila, meaning, I
have, I've written it on a plaque, and,
it's outside.
He said, you know, plaque. What what did
you write it on? He said, I need
that,
it's,
an inheritance from my father, and I wanted
to preserve it.
And it's a a plaque, a marble plaque.
And
only and, I need help for 4 of
your soldiers to bring it in.
So
when they heard that that he was going
to bring a big marble platinum with this
poem,
in, that would have emptied the treasury.
So then they had a discussion and they
he explains that that you have you have
tricked all the poets,
with this with this funny thing that you're
doing.
Just pay them for their what they've done.
And so he agreed to,
not,
empty the treasury
and take the money and
share and give the people their due. So
but
the the point of this was that this
kind of memory does exist and people we
don't see that nowadays maybe in world memory
championships but it's
nothing like this.
You don't see it like this people with
with this sort of memory for reading and
memorizing text, numbers and these other things you
can see.
Anyway,
yeah it's
the important thing is that to remember that
that culture was different and the people had
memories that were powerful and those memories were
put to use in the service of deen
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala did this in
his ultimate wisdom. He knew what what was
necessary and what would come in the future
and how his deen will be preserved.
May Allah
protect you all and guide you and help
you to become mukhlesin to get
the to put in action, to put into
practice what you've learned in this series because
action as we said is is important not
just learning. We're not, this is not
just a academic,
intellectual exercise. It is
about implementing it, working and trying to get
these
ideas, these practices into your daily life. And
as I that,
what I said earlier about every day you
have to ask yourself, look,
what have I
produced for my author today? At the end,
you lie in bed and do. You know,
what am I produced? Yes. I've I've gone
to work. I've earned x, y, and zed.
I've done I've done this. I've done that.
How much of Quran have I read? How
much of did I do? How much of
extra? Because Allah wants you it's the extra
thing that will bring you closer and closer
to Allah. The compulsory things, yes, you will
get close. But the thing that will bring
you into the love of Allah, then you
know, he said that
you are the extra the extra things that
you do, the
the Quran,
the good deeds that you do, the charity
for the sake of Allah. So may Allah
protect you and keep you safe and bring
you back inshallah after the holidays
with
renewed iman.
And as always, I will advise that you
go over the series,
in your own time, make your own notes
because in making notes using the pen,
when you write things,
they have a greater impact
on your ability to follow it and remember
it and keep it
in your consciousness.
Okay
let us pray.
Allah forgive us. Oh Allah forgive us for
our negligence
about our Iqlas.
Oh Allah give us consciousness
give us the consciousness to think give us
the ability
to be vigilant about our Ikhlas.
Guide us to our mercy to your mercies,
oh Allah. Oh Allah, protect our hearts and
minds from doubt and from the all of
these schemes of these schemes of evil. The
schemes of evil that shaateen and the followers
of shaateen
are trying to implant into our minds. O
Allah place our joy and happiness
in only that which pleases you. O Allah
cleanse our hearts from the clutter and worldly
pursuits
and keep us steadfast in the straight path
on the straight path. Oh, Allah. We are
your servants.
We are your
slaves. We are your creation.
We have no other to turn to but
you. Accept our supplication,
and fill our hearts with divine
love and guidance to your eternal success, to
our eternal success, you Allah. Oh Allah,
guide us to Jannah. Guide us to the
to the actions of Jannah.